Isn't at least some of the corruption of local officials the result of the lack of education? They do not know how to function except in traditional baksheesh ways.
One scholar who has studied governance in many countries says that the USA also ought to require every government official to take a course on good governance. I talked recently with a student from a North African country and asked if he planned to work for the government when he got home. He replied, scornfully; "That bunch is all graft and intimidation." Then he relaxed and said: "But I guess they don't know any better, especially how to cope with a bad system.." So perhaps online and in local programs there might be training, as in India where barefoot engineers, etc., are educated on how to work with limited materials in small poor communities. In time, and now is the time to prepare, more village schools can become 'telecenter-type' not only to provide Internet connections so citizens can connect to government services and information, but also to specialized courses. School teachers must be certified that they have learned how to teach. Wouldn't it be great if all officials had to take a certification course. (And maybe many of them would if the course was available...even on a CD that could be listened to on a music-CD player or radio, .... ++++ Parker Rossman is exploring online in a draft textbook, free to the world, how to use the Internet to provide health care and learning for everyone on the planet http://ecolecon.missouri.edu/globalresearch/index.html On Monday, May 16, 2005, Pamela McLean wrote: > CawdNet has a long standing interest in local government. Our late > founder's inital vision was based on working with all ten local > governments in Oke-Ogun. ..snip... > These links mean that within CawdNet we have expert knowledge of Local > Government systems and needs. One of our chiefs, who now holds a > position at state government level, has a long term concern with > tackling the problem of what he describes as "endemic corruption" in > local government. I am currently exploring training possibilities, on > the Chief's behalf, with a friend of mine who runs courses, in London, > on IT in local government for people from many countries, including > Nigeria. ------------ This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For past messages, see: http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/archive.html
